Made it to Hereford. The route there avoiding the motorway goes via Ross-on-Wye where I bought a skirt and a book in one charity shop and another skirt in a second charity shop. In the first I had a nice chat with the woman at the till. She said she was hoping someone would bring in a skirt like the one I bought but in black and said it was difficult to find things she liked in black. We had quite a discussion after that because I said I had the opposite problem that finding colourful clothes that fitted was difficult. She said she was trying to branch out a little and pointed at her camouflage waistcoat. We agreed that people should wear hats more and discussed our favourites, mine being my wide brimmed red and hers being a top hat or a beret.
She said my face was the right shape for wearing hats.
Total cost for two skirts and a book: 2.25 GBP!. That's less than it's cost me to park my car here in Hereford.
Now I'm in the cathedral café having a pleasant brie and broccoli salad and a reasonable mocha.
Very fast WiFi. Pictures of the cathedral later when I unload my camera.
I have Google Maps on my mobile and it just notified me about insights into my August timeline:
Walking, driving, and public transport seem plausible.
But the food and drink seems a little odd I'm pretty sure that I went out to eat on all thirty one days and on some of them to more than one place. Five out of the twelve places it lists are places that I didn't visit or no longer exist and have been replaced with something else.
It's even worse for the shopping, not a single charity shop mentioned. In fact it only lists nineteen places, despite me walking around towns most days and going into every charity shop I can find!
For Attractions it lists just one, Trentham Estate. But I was there twice and definitely for more than thirty two minutes all told.
Then there is an entry for Culture which lists four places and a total of eight and a half hours. But two of the places it lists are places that I only walked past, stopping long enough to take a picture of one of them (Nantwich Museum). It says i spent two and a half hours at Nantwich Museum and nearly two ours at the Tivoli Cinema in Cheltenham despite me never going into either!
And it as an entry for Sports! That's Cottage Farm Stables near Shirley, but I went for coffee not riding! So much for Google knowing everything.
It says i spent 265 hours 30 minutes in hotels which is only eight and a half hours a day. I'm normally in bed longer than that! Not to mention that three of the five places that they list are places that I didn't stay in although I did visit one of them, the Leeds Central Travelodge, with the girls from Nottingham Chameleons when some of them wanted to change clothes at Leeds First Friday.
Fully agree on hats. I have several and I feel strange if I leave the house without wearing one. Full disclosure. I used to be a bit shy of wearing hats, but a couple of biopsies, one of which got infected, had me wearing hats for several months, and ever since I always wear one when out and about, and often when indoors
Apart from my wife becoming very supportive of my dressing I have also managed to vonvince her of the benefits of shopping in charity shops. The selection, and quality, available, especially in women's clothes is really fabulous. And the cost!
@22Michelle On Monday I was idly strolling around the centre of Cheltenham when I passed the Sue Ryder charity shop. It had a sign in the window saying everything for a pound! So of course I spent six pounds. That's less than I spent on a goat's cheese toastie a few minutes later and one of the items was a dress from Monsoon!
@ninalanyon That's what I meant about quality. We've picked ip dresses, skirts, etc high quality brands with original three figure priced sales labels still on!
@22Michelle The problem is that my car is now so full that I only have room for me, and perhaps one forgiving passenger. I tell myself that when I get home I'll put most of it up for sale online and might get my money back but I'll probably end up donating half of it to other charity shops.
Wandered around for a while tried a few more charity shops, managed to avoid buying anything. Found the Hereford Beer House where I'm having a half of Ross-on-Wye dry cider.
Triggered the "Does this contain nudity?" question! I think it must just be looking for a patch of skin colour. But does that mean it's only looking for my particular hue? Or would the same leg in black, brown, olive, or other also trigger it?
